Spicy!

Went to the Spice Girls concert tonight. Awesome fun. Been sick lately so few posts :(

Blasted Dr Who

Some of my Micro Dr Who figures arrived on Friday. As usual with Character I spent about 2 hours putting them together.
This company is quite sneaky. Here's the outside of the box:

And when you open it:

You can't tell what figures are in the box. There's 4 hiding in the bottom. No one knows, the packagers don't know, I got 2 doubles in the same set. Sheesh!
Then there's the micro Tardis. Here's the picture from the manufacturer:

Notice how the figure is not in proportion to the Tardis. Problem #1. But also notice how the Tardis is sitting on the street. Here's the instructions:

And my final product:

Notice how it sits 2 inches above the ground and hovers at a dangerous angle, like the Doctor has been smoking crack for 3 days? Yes, that's what I was looking for. Is this supposed to be like this? Do I need a degree in engineering to put together a toy for 5 year olds? (I did have help)
Here's all the figures I got:

Bullying

"...for two years, Adrian kept a secret from every adult he knew, even his father: The verbal abuse he says was heaped on him from other students. Bullies called him 'Nazi,' because he is from Germany, and 'gay,' because he is a musical-theater prodigy who stars in professional plays. And despite what Cherry Creek Schools calls a proactive effort to curb bullying, including classroom discussions, plenty of kids knew Adrian was a target and nearly a dozen watched him get beaten up at a school-bus stop in November. Adrian had bruises and a broken collarbone. 'They didn't lift a finger to help him,' Heinz Ulm said of his 14-year- old son. 'I can't understand that.' His attacker won't face criminal charges, because Adrian voluntarily took part in the fight, the Ulms were told. But a 2-year-old amendment to Colorado's hate-crime laws could make Adrian's assailant the first youth in Colorado to be sued for punitive damages on the basis of school bullying. 'I would definitely describe this as a hate crime,' said Adrian's lawyer, Gregg McReynolds, who has not made a decision about a suit."

Adrian Ulm, after he was beaten up in November. His collar bone was also broken.

Rehearsing for "High School Musical" with classmates.
___________________________________________

Brandon McInerney, a 14-year-old eighth-grader, has been charged with attempted murder as a hate crime in the shooting death of Lawrence 'Larry' King. The charges are expected to be upgraded to murder once King is taking off his ventilator, which is keeping his body alive so that he may donate his organs. McInerney is to be tried as an adult. McInerney reportedly turned 14, which is the cutoff age to be tried as an adult, on January 24th.

King was shot in the head in front of a full classroom of students. It still has not been disclosed where McInerney got the gun that he snuck into the classroom.

According to King's father, when King arrived at the hospital he was making some unintelligible sounds but doctors quickly induced a coma as part of his treatment. He survived for six hours but then suffered a massive stroke, which caused his brain to swell, and ultimately, his death.

Via the AP: "[Ventura County prosecutor Maeve] Fox said she could not discuss the facts behind the allegation of a hate crime because those details of the case have not been publicly disclosed. Oxnard police have not specified a motive but said there appeared to be a personal dispute between the two. King sometimes came to school wearing makeup and high heels, eighth-grader Nicholas Cortez, 14, told The Associated Press. Another eighth-grader, Michael Sweeney, said King's appearance was 'freaking the guys out,' the Los Angeles Times reported Thursday. 'He would come to school in high-heeled boots, makeup, jewelry and painted nails — the whole thing,' Sweeney told the Times."

The L.A. Times reports that "classmates of the slain boy, Lawrence King, said he recently had started to wear makeup and jewelry and had proclaimed himself gay. Several students said King and a group of boys, including the defendant, had a verbal confrontation concerning King's sexual orientation a day before the killing."

The paper adds, "Because he is a minor, McInerney will remain in Juvenile Hall and be taken to the Ventura courtroom for court appearances, Fox said. He is being held in lieu of $770,000 bail. If convicted, McInerney could face 50 years to life. The hate crime enhancement would add another one to three years to his sentence."

Up top is a shot of King provided to the media by his family. His father explained that "In Port Hueneme, he used licorice sticks to catch crawdads."

The Ventura County Star reports: "He said his son was headstrong, confident, artistic and sweet. Larry King loved to sing songs by folk rock trio Crosby, Stills and Nash, and was studying 'The Star-Spangled Banner' in hopes of singing it at his younger brother's baseball games, his father said. 'He had a very gifted singing voice.'

The Great Pumpkin Halloween 1996

The dangers of chickens and cows and people

Yikes! This video was part of a special by Jamie Oliver exposing the practices of the chicken industry and has put me off chicken. I will never buy eggs that aren't free range again. Before watching this show I didn't even know what free-range meant or why it was beneficial. Consumers have an option:

#1- To get the cheapest possible eggs, "farmers" put chickens four to a pen, these chickens do not have the ability to stand and frequently have the bone on their leg exposed by rubbing against the cage. They lay there for a year, then are decapitated, plucked and put in a vice, where everything that comes out (bone, skin, meat, everything) is turned into chicken fingers and chicken wieners. Disgusting.

#2- Free range chickens are kept in a pen and free to lay eggs whenever they want. For a few cents more an egg, they get exercise, interaction with other chickens and to play (they like brightly coloured objects, like a red soccer ball).

These animals are not machines and we can't continue treating them like this. Let the chickens stand up! Whenever I do have the ability to eat chicken again, free-range is it. No Swiss Chalet, no KFC, demand change!

So I've been eating a lot of beef and tuna, a video surfaced the other day causing officials to recall 143 million pounds of beef. I don't plan on posting the video as it's too much to watch but you can click it if you want. It appears cattle can't be killed for food unless they can stand so the video shows workers torturing the cows into standing and running over their legs and face with a forklift.

I can understand the mentality, when discussing the chicken problem today no one was really interested, and I can understand the thinking "We're going to eat it anyway" but really how can we condone this to save a few cents?

An interesting side effect of this video was the comments, which have all been removed, saying things like "This is what happens when you hire illegal immigrant workers". And I'll admit, I was thinking a version of the same thing. Is it that you don't want to believe someone like you could do this? None of the workers immigration status were called into question.

I've had a couple experiences lately with my own prejudice I wanted to share. I was at the archives sitting around talking with a few gay men and one of them, a guy about 50, said he picked up a young guy at the gym. Others started probing "What did he look like?" and I was kind of curious. This guy isn't bad looking but he's not Zac Efron, so what did the younger guy have wrong with him? So the fellow says "He was Guinease...." and I was like "Oh, that's why." In my mind that was what was wrong with him, he wasn't white, and therefore the mystery had been solved. This thought process disturbed me and has stuck with me.

I was talking to a coworker today, telling her this story, and she suggested maybe it was because of my personal preference, that I wasn't attracted to non-whites. But is this ok? On a dating profile, could I put "white only" and not risk sounding like Hitler? Or could I expand it, to include whites and acceptable races like Black and Spanish? The whole idea makes my head explode. She asked if I would date an Asian raised in Canada, and I thought of one I know and said no, we could date but it wouldn't go anywhere. The differences would be too great. What happens when he takes me home to meet his parents and they're all sitting on the floor eating rice with chopsticks and his mom has chopsticks in her hair and they bow to greet me. Won't I feel different?

What is the answer? I was going to do a blog on homophobia, but perhaps the discrimination begins with me. Now what?

Double Duty

The funny thing about running 2 blogs is I'm not slowing down, I'm feeling the pressure and now I'm a blogging fool. My other blog is up to 600 hits in the space of a week.
I'm not supposed to be spending as I'm saving for my trip, so I bought a $60 book today, New York Sex 1979-85 by Gary Lee Boas.

It's a collection of stories and pictures from this guy who hung out in sex clubs in NYC in the early 80's. Now he's a big time photographer and published a book.
I'm tired and my internet is slow as dial up for some reason Primus can't explain, so today a poem, from 1967, from the book "The Short Happy Sex Life of Stud Sorell and 69 Other Flights of Fancy" by Orlando Paris.

Tricks of Fate
Why is it
That when I'm
Out looking,
The streets are bare,
The bars empty?
Everyone seems to be
Some place else.
But just let me
Be late to work or
Have an appointment,
Something important
That must be done,
And all the beautiful boys
In the entire world
Materialize before me,
Showing your magnificent baskets,
Young, eager, practically
Handing me
Engraved invitations
To make love.
Something must be done
About re-arranging
My schedule.

What the Government DOESN'T WANT YOU TO SEE!

I'm going to rename this to the Sunday blog. I've created like 4 posts today. Maybe I'll save this one for early next week.
The government of Canada publishes a quarterly list of prohibited titles. These are titles that have been seized by customs agents and referred to a board to see if the materials meet Canadian standards. Who is on the board? How do you appeal? Why do they not provide a complete list of rejected titles? These people have no accountability. For example, why was an item deemed "Prohibited" from entry into Canada? No one knows and no one is able to ask.
I think we Canadians should be concerned about this censorship and in an effort to enlighten, I wanted to examine what exactly was being banned. If you want to sign up for the list email piu-uip@cbsa-asfc.gc.ca

Banned title #1- Knights of the Cross Produced by Tightrope Records.
You can read this whole comic here. It doesn't seem that bad to me. Here's a panel:

Now what's funny is this comic was banned but "Racist Jokes", incorrectly labeled "Nigger Jokes" by the government of Canada was fine. Sample jokes:
What's the difference between a jew and a pizza?
A pizza doesn't scream in the oven.

What did the Alabama sherriff call the nigger who had been shot 15 times?
Worst case of suicide he had ever seen.

What do nigger kids get for Christmas?
Your bike.

You hear about the new car made in Israel?
Not only can it stop on a dime, it will go back and pick it up.

What's the most confusing day in Harlem?
Father's Day.

What is the difference between Batman and a black man?
Batman can go out at night without Robin.

Why did the Jews wander in the desert for 40 years?
Because one of them lost a quarter.

Both are available for 20 cents each here. I'm going to get this blog banned yet!

Banned Title #2 - Flashbang! by Yoshitatsu Kiichigono

I thought this comic was pretty cool. You can read the first chapter here. I suggest you check it out, it's hot! You can buy it off amazon.com here. No idea why it was banned.
A bunch of incest and bondage anime.... still looking for something good...
A great film I found, not sure if it was banned previously, Hitler Sucks in which "lots and lots of kinky sex is peppered with dialogue, swastika's and black and white footage pertaining to Hitler. But this film doesn't discriminate like he did. Everyone can have sex with everyone else. Anglo Saxon or not these sexpots want to be fucked and Hitler is trying to continue the human race!"


Yep. Next up we have Banned Title #3 - Jesus Christ, Serial Rapist.

"A schizophrenic believing himself to be the reincarnation of Jesus Christ seeks vengeance against those who he believes are the reincarnations of the people who wronged him in the past in this surreal exploitation sentry from Bad Acid director Bill Zebub. As he sets out on a path of destruction and murder that would put Lucifer to shame, the appearance of one of his victim's girlfriends during a moment of murderous rage prompts the vengeful would-be savior to begin targeting the women of his enemies as well." You can buy it in Canada from amazon.ca here. So much for blocking entry into the country. Why bother?
What's funny is how the straight porn industry still is as racist as can be and no one seems to care. Take for example "Oh no! There's a NEGRO in my mom!"

Nice.
God this list is long. Is anyone else spending 4 hours of their Sunday afternoon doing this?
That's enough for now.

The media you first identified with

I have been asked by the Canadian Lesbian and Gay Archives, specifically the handsome and charismatic manager Robert Windrum, to share, in about 250 words, the media that I first identified with as a homosexual.
Robert based his submission on Dave Kopay, a football player who came out in 1975 and wrote his life story. Mr. Kopay also recently donated $1 million to the University of Washington's Q Center, whose mission is to create an inclusive and celebratory environment for people of all sexual orientations.
I wracked my brain for a book. I think in 20 years teens will be able to say they read a life changing gay story they identified with, but the fact is I did not. The first gay book I read that changed my life was Against the Law by Peter Wildeblood.

This book details a British man who was arrested and jailed for 18 months for being gay in England in 1954. It moved me because it was so recent, I could picture this happening to me. It gave me a sense of community and of the struggle gays have gone though, I read each page in rapture. But, I read this only last year.
I didn't grow up with the internet. In the small town of 500 people I grew up in the only gay books I ever read were books like "Growing up gay", given to me by counselors who had driven over an hour to come help me come to terms with my sexuality. These books seemed so clinical, I don't think I ever read any of them. I was born gay, I was okay with that, I just needed help finding my place.
Even when I turned 17 and moved to Toronto, I did go to Glad Day Bookshop but I think I only bought pornography. There was no sense of community in my mind and I think for the first time, no public struggles for gay rights. There was nothing to rebel against.
So I chose the TV movie Doing Time on Maple Drive.

This movie was broadcast March 16, 1992, when I had just turned 13 and been inadvertently thrown out of the closet. My mother had found a journal I was writing about a boy in my class, Jeff Wahler, and had not handled the situation well.
I knew this movie was coming on and I needed to watch it. It was the first time I had heard of a movie with a gay theme and on that night I was sitting, glued to the tv. I remember watching it in awe, as the story played out, here was the first time I saw positive images of gay men. These guys were masculine and well-spoken and it was a whole new concept of gay for me. Before this I never really thought I was gay. I was attracted to one person my whole life thus far and he was a man. I thought I was single sexual.
My mom spoke with my father, who called me 15 minutes before the movie was over. We had just received our first VCR the week before so I taped the last 15 minutes and took the call. It was what could be expected of the time, what was wrong with me, I was a disgrace, a piece of shit and he was going to get me counseling. But when I came back to that movie I had a sense again that things might be ok.
We had no cable so the signal wasn't very good but I must have watched the grainy footage from the last 15 minutes of the film about 50 times. I remember the father in the story saying to the gay son "Whatever you are, we love you."